


Matter of Time

by tokeneffort



Series: Erik's back! Surprise! [1]
Category: X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: background Erik/Charles, erik might be a little OOC, this is literal nonsense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2016-05-31
Packaged: 2018-07-11 08:50:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7041436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tokeneffort/pseuds/tokeneffort
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erik's back. No one's happy. Especially not Alex.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Matter of Time

**Author's Note:**

> This is sort of set in a timeline after Days of Future Past.

At first, everything’s fine.

Alex, Sean and Hank clearly hate having him around, but they’re fond of Raven and Charles lights up anew every time he even sets eyes on Erik (Magneto is absolutely banned, despite Charles hearing only that name for him in Alex and Sean’s thoughts still) so the boys tolerate him, even going so far as to be civil.

That might also be for the twenty students’ benefit, as Alex threatening to burn Erik to a crisp in front of a group of preteens when he first arrived, before both Charles and Raven pulled them apart didn’t create the best first impression. The students still tended to sidle away from him, mistrust in their faces because it was fairly obvious that none of the teachers _really_ liked him and they trusted their authority figures like little sheep.

It doesn’t take Erik long to create a fight from the tension in the dynamic, not that he really meant to. It was a matter of time and, well, he can’t forget how recently it was that particularly Alex and Sean, but even Raven and Hank were students and he still finds him criticising their techniques, at first in private but it boils to a confrontation when he accidentally voices this to exactly the wrong person.

It’s a nice Thursday in March, and Erik’s been there for six months. He’s trying to be unobtrusive in Hank’s lab, but the blue mutant seems uncomfortable with him there and keeps dropping things which Erik can normally catch but when he sees the fifth glass test tube shatter he leaves. Sean’s flying with those who can, teaching them to use currents and land abruptly (“fall-safe,” he’d laughed earlier. “Like fail-safe? Get it?”) and Raven was teaching a class on American Literature, though how she got that job Erik had no idea, while Charles was teaching biology. That left Erik wandering the grounds until he came across an area of singed grass and Alex, letting those with particularly damaging powers blow off steam while learning to control it.

“-see?” Summers is saying, leaning against an unharmed tree and waving at a deep depression. “If Chris could control his powers better, he wouldn’t have caved in that whole area. He could have taken down one person.”

Credit where credit is due, he did notice Erik within seconds of the older man’s arrival and he steps casually between him and the students.

“Lehnsherr.”

“Summers.”

“Mr. Summers?” one of the older kids, who Erik recognises as Gemma, a mutant who made plants grow when angry (surprisingly destructive, especially when indoors), raises a hand. “Could you maybe demonstrate how to focus your energy?”

“Sure,” Alex says, giving Erik a sidelong glance and waving the kids back. “What do you want me to hit?”

“How about that tree? Cut off a branch?”

“Okay.” The pulsing red beam cuts through the air and slices through a branch which makes his students gasp with astonishment because most of them are still struggling to hit anything, let alone a small target like a branch. But Erik sees the haphazard mark on the branch and it’s a habit formed from training two teams more than anything else that makes him snap “again” automatically.

Alex glares at him, but the kids all cheer, not noticing anything amiss and so Alex fires another beam, this time through his hand. It’s not a perfect shot, not at all, but the kids don’t notice and Alex’s anger grows when Erik again automatically reacts.

“Sloppy.”

Alex turns to the children, sucking in a deep breath. “Gemma, Chris, could you please take the other children inside? Now?”

Gemma looks like she’s about to argue but she notices a thin red outline around Alex and quickly takes the youngest’s hand, rushing toward the mansion and doubtless straight to Charles’ office.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

“Alex-”

“Don’t call me that.” It’s sharp and creates a momentary pang somewhere in Erik’s stomach before he pushes it down. He doesn’t care, he doesn’t, not that the majority of his first students either hate him or are dead.

“Fine. Summers. All I’m doing is trying to help you gain better control. Surely even _you_ can see that.”

Alex takes a step toward him, hand pulsing. “Are you serious?”

“Deadly serious.” Erik is confused, now, because why would Alex not get that? He’s younger than Erik and not as controlled and of course Erik would attempt to help him, he’s done it before…

“You think you can just come back here? You think you can just walk back into our lives after you crippled the Professor, after you left us abandoned on a beach, after you _left us_!” Alex’s yelling and clearly not over Erik’s departure.

“I didn’t know you cared,” Erik knows it’s the wrong thing to say the second it leaves his mouth and even before but he can’t stop it, he’s angry too.

Alex screams out “how dare you” and he’s raising his hand and there’s nowhere for Erik to go and then the shot arches over his head and Erik looks up to see Sean carrying Alex over the forest canopy, Sean’s own noise drowning out Alex’s.

And then Charles is there and he looks so very _disappointed_ and he looks at the sky before he sighs and turns to Erik.

“Sean will take Alex to calm down. Let’s go inside and you can tell me what happened.”

Erik follows him in silence, looking everywhere but at Charles’ wheelchair as he pushes it through the mud with difficulty. They eventually make it back inside and Erik follows Charles to his office, feeling more like a small child then he really should.

“Erik…” Charles waits until they’re both settled, him behind his desk and Erik in an armchair by the window. “Why would you pick _Alex_ of all people to antagonise?”

“I didn’t intend to antagonise him,” Erik says, nettled despite himself. “I was just trying to teach him.”

Charles looks at him, an expression uncomfortably close to pity on his face. “Erik, it’s been years. I know you’re actually trying to be kind, but none of them needs teaching anymore. They aren’t children anymore.” Erik feels like there’s an unspoken _you missed that boat_ at the end, but Charles isn’t that type and anyway, he knows that without needing to be told.

It doesn’t stop him having to quash annoyance- and maybe a different emotion he’ll never admit- at Charles’ next statement. “Erik, you can’t force them to respect you again.” It’s another reminder that he doesn’t need because he _knows_ and Erik stands and leaves, heading towards his car and driving into town, where he finds a derelict building and crushes an oven in one of the ancient apartments. He feels slightly better after that and he heads back, feeling stupid for storming off like a toddler.

He passes Sean on the way in, who’s sitting on the stairs and while his expression when he glances at Erik is one of tempered loathing, he seems vaguely guilty and Erik wonders what Banshee could have done. _Helped Alex destroy a building, probably._

He makes his way back to Charles’ office and Charles pierces him with an exasperated look. “Ready to apologize to Alex?”

“Fine,” Erik snapped. “Where is he?”

“He’s in his room. Sean couldn’t calm him down and he was worried Alex would knock them out of the air so he dropped him- knocked him unconscious, but also broke his leg so he’s on bedrest.”

“No wonder Sean seemed upset.”

“Of course he was. He was forced to side with _you_ over Alex. Or that’s how he feels anyway,” Hank says from the doorway. He’s holding a tray of syringes and also a bowl of soup. “You can come with me- Alex is awake and I was just about to set his leg.”

Erik winces but follows Hank, the Beast his current favourite of the boys as he looks Erik in the face, unlike Sean who can’t meet his eyes, but manages it without a glare or a sneer which is more than Alex can do. _He’s going to hate me even more._

They pass Raven and Raven smiles at Hank then scowls at Erik. He wonders what Sean told her happened and knows she’s mad at him too- she never regretted going with Erik, but she’s blissfully happy to be home. She doesn’t want him to leave and neither does he, because this time, he’s not sure she’ll follow him.

They reach Alex’s room and Hank pushes open the door.

“I bought you soup.”

“Thanks.”

“And painkillers.”

“You’re a wonderful man, Hank.” It’s sarcastic, but not mean. “Thank you.”

“And Erik.”

“What the fuck, Hank?!” Alex pushes himself onto his elbows and peers past Hank, trying to scowl at Erik. “Tell him to piss off!”

“He wants to apologize.”

“He can get fucked, I don’t want his apology, I want him to leave forever.”

Hank ignores him and places the soup on Alex’s bedside table before selecting a syringe from his tray, putting the rest out of Alex’s reach- possibly in case he throws one at Lehnsherr- and injecting just below Alex’s left knee.

His leg is swollen and clearly painful, but there’s no broken skin and it isn’t the worst break Summers has had, so some of the worry Erik didn’t even know he had dissipated. Hank places his hands gently onto Alex’s bare skin, telling Alex to bite into a pillow, and suddenly gestures at Erik.

“Can you grab his arms? I don’t need him shooting me.”

“ _Hell_ , no!” Alex protests, but Erik’s pushing him down and then Alex stiffens and vibrates, muttering curses into his pillow. It takes less than a minute, but it’s five before Alex stops trembling and Hank and Erik both gently let him go. It’s another three before Alex removes the pillow from his mouth and says in a voice that’s slightly scratchy, “your drugs suck, Hank.”

“I’ll give you another shot now,” Hank says, cheerfully. “You won’t feel your leg, then.”

“Why couldn’t you have given me that earlier?”

“In case I pushed too far- it needs to be precise, you know.”

Alex looks horrified, but he relaxes as the second syringe’s contents spread through his body. Erik passes him the soup and Alex summons the energy to glare at him, but he’s clearly losing consciousness again. Hank takes the soup back and draws a blanket over his brother-in-arms, before trying to usher Erik out.

“He’s going to sleep again.”

“I didn’t get to apologize.”

Hank’s eyebrows raise, then he rolls his eyes. “Whatever. Don’t wake him up, or I will tear your head off.”

He goes off, presumably to tell Charles, then Sean and Raven that Alex’s okay. Erik settles in to wait.

It’s another three hours before Alex wakes. Hank brings in fresh soup every half an hour and this bowl is still hot, so Erik hands it to the man in the bed. Alex eats some then hands it back without once looking at the man beside his bed.

“Summers,” Erik says. “I never meant to insinuate that you didn’t care about Charles or your teammates or the school.”

Alex shrugs. “Good for you.”

“Al- Summers, I don’t apologize often but… you were always most like me, and I will never say this again. I didn’t mean to hurt any of you when I left. I didn’t know about Charles-”

“So if he was fine, you would have just left us? You’re only guilty because he was hurt?”

Erik closed his eyes. “That’s not what I said.”

“It’s what you implied.”

“I- no, I am not only guilty because he was hurt. I didn’t think about the fact I was tearing your team in two.” _Your family._ “I almost regret leaving, because I’m here now, aren’t I? And humans still hate and fear us. I could have stayed and-”

Alex cuts him off. “Well, you didn’t.” He must see Erik’s pained look because he adds, begrudgingly, “I forgive you _for today-_ ” and that is emphasized, “-but I’m more than a bit uncomfortable and I’m tired, and I’m pretty sure that Sean’s beating himself up.”

Erik takes that as the dismissal it is and heads back to his own room, only to startle at Charles sitting inside.

“That was good of you.”

“Well,” Erik gives Charles an amused look, “I should have known better than to pick a fight with the most volatile person here.”

They share a laugh and for a second, none of the past matters.

 


End file.
